Drop-off event planned for household hazardous wastes

Monday

Sep 16, 2013 at 12:01 AMSep 16, 2013 at 5:28 PM

Nan Kirlin

It’s time. I have been fielding many calls from county residents ready to drop off their household hazardous wastes – and it’s finally here. We will be accepting household wastes from 8 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday at the Gaston County Park, 1303 Dallas-Cherryville Highway, Dallas.

We do not, however, accept hazardous materials from businesses, so please do not come to this event. If you need help with disposal of business waste, call my office at 704 -922-7729 and I can assist you.

We stopped doing collections during the summer months because of the potential for heat-related illness such as heat exhaustion and heat stroke. That being said, we will keep our fingers crossed for pleasant weather on Saturday morning.

Please turn into the park, drive past the Citizens Resource Center on your left and past the parking lots on your right. Bear to the right, circle around the old county home, where you’ll see our hazardous waste building. Stay in your vehicle as our workers unload your car. It is safer and faster, and the line of cars will move more efficiently.

We do accept fluorescent tubes and CFL bulbs, and are grateful for you holding onto these for this event. We also accept thermostats containing mercury.

We do not accept tires, computers or electronics at this event as they are collected every day at our county convenience sites.

Speaking of paint, we have been accepting latex paint during the operating hours at the landfill at Philadelphia Church Road in Dallas. We mix the paint with an alternative daily cover to coat the working face of the municipal trash. This paint acts as a binder to the “ posishell ” and actually saves valuable landfill space by eliminating the need for six inches of cover dirt. Oil based paint is still a hazardous waste, and so we only collect oil-based at our hazardous waste event.

If you have any “mystery” bottles or containers that have lost a label, bring them! These are the scariest ones, and we certainly don’t want them mixed with random liquids or poured down a drain, that eventually leads to our water supply.

We appreciate that you take your Saturday morning to discard of hazardous materials in a responsible fashion. Our fourth and final event for the year will be Nov. 2.

Thanks for caring about our water, our land and our future.

Nan Kirlin is recycling coordinator for Gaston County. Her column runs on Sundays.